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Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (Perennial Classics)
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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Author: Ole Edvart Rolvaag
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $10.17
You Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Author: Ole Edvart Rolvaag
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (Perennial Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780060931933
ISBN: 0060931930
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 560
Publication Date: 1999-08-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Product Release Date: 1999-08-04
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780060931933
ISBN: 0060931930
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 560
Publication Date: 1999-08-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Product Release Date: 1999-08-04
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Editorial Review of Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (Perennial Classics)
The classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America.
Customer Reviews of Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (Perennial Classics)
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: Found it on my son's 8th grade reading list
Review: I had never heard of this book until I saw it on my 8th grade son's reading list. Growing up in the South, and living in the West since '72, I was totally unfamiliar with the history of Norwegian immigrants in America. I found the book interesting, albeit, did not like how the story omitted some details, chapter to chapter, I wanted to know everything, maybe I'm shallow, but....
I was amazed to find out how many people, especially co-workers, had read this book, and it was responsible for more than a few literary discussions. If I could give it 3 1/2 stars, I would.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Powerful characters, beautifully written
Review: Like Moberg's novels of the Swedish emmigrant experience in Minnesota, Rolvaag's earlier Saga of the Prairie tells of the Norwegian frontier settlers in Dakota Territory. Rolvaag's prose is richly evocative of the solitude and loneliness of the wide prairie expanses and the savage elements of winter blizzards and summer locust plagues. His characters are deep and complex, and the whole story reads like a literary soap opera almost impossible to put down. A great achivement, highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: From a once South Dakota Farm Girl ...
Review: I enjoyed this book very much and I thought it was an excellent literary work. I really wanted to give it five stars, but I could not for one reason. I felt the women in this book really were quite weak of mind. I found myself wondering - was this an accurate portrayal or a bad stereotype or just a story line for this particular story? Maybe it was a good representation of the particular culture at that time; I don't know.
I grew up in South Dakota farm country where the women and men are equal in strength of mind, character and judgement. Some are weak; some are strong. At least that is my opinion.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and especially those interested in history and humankind's connection to nature and the earth.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The true story of homesteading the prairie
Review: There are better-known stories of the homesteading experience, such as Willa Cather's "My Antonia" and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series, but none of them hit as close to the truth as did O.E. Rolvaag in "Giants in the Earth."
It is translated into something of an epic style, somewhat like James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series, but its subject matter almost demands such a style. Because it tells an epic story, of Per's struggles against the prairie, the harsh weather, and against the burden of his well-meaning wife, who lacks Per's inner resources to thrive, despite the forbidding conditions.
But of all the homesteading fiction, "Giants in the Earth" is the closest to the truth of any I have read, in capturing the beauty and violence of the prairie, and the sincere, honest, hard-working beauty of the pioneers who tamed it. Because the truth isn't the pretty pastels of the Little House books. The prairie homesteader had a bleak, harsh, spartan existence, especially before the sod was broken and the trees were planted. There are substantiated accounts of homesteaders and their young families dying out here--starving in the winters if the food carried over from the fall ran out, or freezing to death in blizzards when the snow covered the sodhouses and the fuel was used up. Waves of diphtheria, tuberculosis and influenza killed still more, sending the remnants of the broken families back East. (But when the truth isn't pretty, it is usually covered up.)
So in my opinion, this is a story about greatness, and how even the most apparently humble men can become truly great--daring and achieving things that should be impossible. And as in Per's story, the reward doesn't always recompense the labor when one attempts to wrest a living from the prairie; even 140 years later, many prairie towns still teeter on the brink of existence. It's a struggle that continues today, and there are still men like Per out here, who won't give in, no matter what is thrown at them. Rolvaag had it right; they are giants.
As for me, I'm a Johnny-come-lately, only a South Dakotan for 27 years. But I would not want to live anywhere else.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Intriguing look at my ancestors' experiences
Review: I found this book quite by accident, looking for information about Norway. My great-grandparents immigrated to eastern South Dakota from Norway in 1870. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I decided I couldn't wait for it to be shipped and found it in a local bookstore.
Wow. What a range of emotions to be felt during the reading of this book. At times, I put it down for days, thinking Per Hansa was a fool and wasn't going to get out of a situation alive. I was surprised at the lack of serious consequesnces for making foolish decisions, such as removing the landmarks of other men's land claims. I wasn't there 100 years ago, but a land dispute should have been taken up in court, not in hand-to-hand combat. (Although it's true that I felt sick about the possibility of all the work of building a home and breaking ground going to waste.) I just cannot imagine that the resolution would have really happened that way (trying to avoid a spoiler!)
At other times, I laughed out loud at Per Hansa's response to a situation... "the first furrow was crooked as a snake..." I can just feel the man thinking that thought.
I guess my one main complaint about the book is all the time spent building up to these cataclysmic events (Irish settlers, Indian visitors, ailing Hans Olsa, etc.) and then to resolve the issue with a half page ending. Someone else wrote about laughing at the very end; I cried bitterly. I was not expecting the book to end the way it did.
That said, this is an amazing look into the lives of my ancestors. I will be rereading this book and am eagerly awaiting Peder Victorius.
Review Summary: Found it on my son's 8th grade reading list
Review: I had never heard of this book until I saw it on my 8th grade son's reading list. Growing up in the South, and living in the West since '72, I was totally unfamiliar with the history of Norwegian immigrants in America. I found the book interesting, albeit, did not like how the story omitted some details, chapter to chapter, I wanted to know everything, maybe I'm shallow, but....
I was amazed to find out how many people, especially co-workers, had read this book, and it was responsible for more than a few literary discussions. If I could give it 3 1/2 stars, I would.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Powerful characters, beautifully written
Review: Like Moberg's novels of the Swedish emmigrant experience in Minnesota, Rolvaag's earlier Saga of the Prairie tells of the Norwegian frontier settlers in Dakota Territory. Rolvaag's prose is richly evocative of the solitude and loneliness of the wide prairie expanses and the savage elements of winter blizzards and summer locust plagues. His characters are deep and complex, and the whole story reads like a literary soap opera almost impossible to put down. A great achivement, highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: From a once South Dakota Farm Girl ...
Review: I enjoyed this book very much and I thought it was an excellent literary work. I really wanted to give it five stars, but I could not for one reason. I felt the women in this book really were quite weak of mind. I found myself wondering - was this an accurate portrayal or a bad stereotype or just a story line for this particular story? Maybe it was a good representation of the particular culture at that time; I don't know.
I grew up in South Dakota farm country where the women and men are equal in strength of mind, character and judgement. Some are weak; some are strong. At least that is my opinion.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and especially those interested in history and humankind's connection to nature and the earth.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The true story of homesteading the prairie
Review: There are better-known stories of the homesteading experience, such as Willa Cather's "My Antonia" and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series, but none of them hit as close to the truth as did O.E. Rolvaag in "Giants in the Earth."
It is translated into something of an epic style, somewhat like James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series, but its subject matter almost demands such a style. Because it tells an epic story, of Per's struggles against the prairie, the harsh weather, and against the burden of his well-meaning wife, who lacks Per's inner resources to thrive, despite the forbidding conditions.
But of all the homesteading fiction, "Giants in the Earth" is the closest to the truth of any I have read, in capturing the beauty and violence of the prairie, and the sincere, honest, hard-working beauty of the pioneers who tamed it. Because the truth isn't the pretty pastels of the Little House books. The prairie homesteader had a bleak, harsh, spartan existence, especially before the sod was broken and the trees were planted. There are substantiated accounts of homesteaders and their young families dying out here--starving in the winters if the food carried over from the fall ran out, or freezing to death in blizzards when the snow covered the sodhouses and the fuel was used up. Waves of diphtheria, tuberculosis and influenza killed still more, sending the remnants of the broken families back East. (But when the truth isn't pretty, it is usually covered up.)
So in my opinion, this is a story about greatness, and how even the most apparently humble men can become truly great--daring and achieving things that should be impossible. And as in Per's story, the reward doesn't always recompense the labor when one attempts to wrest a living from the prairie; even 140 years later, many prairie towns still teeter on the brink of existence. It's a struggle that continues today, and there are still men like Per out here, who won't give in, no matter what is thrown at them. Rolvaag had it right; they are giants.
As for me, I'm a Johnny-come-lately, only a South Dakotan for 27 years. But I would not want to live anywhere else.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Intriguing look at my ancestors' experiences
Review: I found this book quite by accident, looking for information about Norway. My great-grandparents immigrated to eastern South Dakota from Norway in 1870. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I decided I couldn't wait for it to be shipped and found it in a local bookstore.
Wow. What a range of emotions to be felt during the reading of this book. At times, I put it down for days, thinking Per Hansa was a fool and wasn't going to get out of a situation alive. I was surprised at the lack of serious consequesnces for making foolish decisions, such as removing the landmarks of other men's land claims. I wasn't there 100 years ago, but a land dispute should have been taken up in court, not in hand-to-hand combat. (Although it's true that I felt sick about the possibility of all the work of building a home and breaking ground going to waste.) I just cannot imagine that the resolution would have really happened that way (trying to avoid a spoiler!)
At other times, I laughed out loud at Per Hansa's response to a situation... "the first furrow was crooked as a snake..." I can just feel the man thinking that thought.
I guess my one main complaint about the book is all the time spent building up to these cataclysmic events (Irish settlers, Indian visitors, ailing Hans Olsa, etc.) and then to resolve the issue with a half page ending. Someone else wrote about laughing at the very end; I cried bitterly. I was not expecting the book to end the way it did.
That said, this is an amazing look into the lives of my ancestors. I will be rereading this book and am eagerly awaiting Peder Victorius.